That it be a tool which helps us with planning our trips.
We're trying to shape our Gazetteer as a tool to help us understand the community in which our ancestors lived, the community that was part of their daily lives.
On our trips, we try to visit those places where our ancestors left their footprints.
By learning about Thorndale (and the surrounding area) during the time that our ancestors lived, we hope to have a better understanding of both their community and its relationship to their lifes. We hope that this tool helps to give us an insight into their world.
As we add data and organize our Gazetteer to help with our family research, we will be adding to this our Genealogical Helper for Thorndale. While we don't have information that is specific to any given person or family, we intend to expand our understanding about where and how people lived.
Neighboring Counties ...
When searching for family records, we have frequently made the mistake of not checking the neighboring counties.
For example, we have great-grandparents who lived in the southwest corner of their home county. During their lives, most doctors and hospitals were in the next county to the west. Almost all of the nearby churches and cemeteries were in the county to the south.
So when searching for records, we had our best success by looking in neighboring counties instead of the county in which they lived: their home county contained property and probate records; the county to the west contained birth and death records; the county to the south contained their burial records. If we hadn't included the neighboring counties, we would have missed many valuable sources of information.
If you're in a similar situation, we hope that the following information helps.
Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Mortonville. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<2>
Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Springton. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<2>
Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Cedar Knoll. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<2>
Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Monocacy. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<2>
Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Beckersville. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<2>
Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Glen Riddle. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<2>
Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Aston Mills. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<2>
Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Rockdale. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<2>
Green Countrie Village is located in Delaware County
Creekside Village at Naamans (18 miles [29 km] to the southeast)
Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Creekside Village at Naamans have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Beartown. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<2>
Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Buyerstown. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<2>
Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Ninepoints. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<2>
Port Providence (16 miles [25.7 km] to the northeast)
Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Port Providence. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<2>
Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Bramcote. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<2>
Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Allen Lane. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<2>
Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Mount Cuba. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<2>
Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Southwood. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<2>
The following are listed by their distance from Thorndale, with the one closest to Thorndale listed first.
Appleton (20 miles [32.2 km] to the south)
Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Appleton. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<2>
Old Line Village of Fair Hill (20 miles [32.2 km] to the south)
Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Old Line Village of Fair Hill have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
Old Line Village of Fair Hill is located in Cecil County (MD)
Fair Hill (21 miles [33.8 km] to the south)
Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Fair Hill. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<2>
Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Iron Hill. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<2>
Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Thorndale.
This is a new section and is likely to have errors. If you find an error, such as a missing cemetery or we have the wrong name, please let us know. If you know of them, we would also appreciate learning about previous or alternate names.
If you need information about a burial or interment, photos, transcripts, how to contact the cemetery or local authorities, please visit our selection of Genealogy Websites (see below).
If not found below, our Cemetery List for Thorndale covers a larger area, with the cemeteries listed in alphabetical order.
The following cemeteries are listed based on their distance from Thorndale, with the one closest to Thorndale listed first.
St. Joseph Cemetery (Less than 2 miles to the east)
To give a relative sense of its location, the Chestnut Grove Cemetery Annex is a large cemetery that is located outside and to the northwest of West Chester.
The Chestnut Grove Cemetery Annex has also been known as:
We've built the following list with information that came from an Atlas published by Rand McNally in 1895. The Atlas had details such as the population of the community (which appears to have come from the 1890 Census) and whether there was a post office and/or railroad service available. We also indicate if the community no longer exists and is now historic.<6>
The Rand McNally Atlas shows that in 1895, Thorndale had railroad service and no post office.
These communities are listed based on their distance from Thorndale, with the one closest to Thorndale listed first.
Gallagherville (Less than 2 miles to the northeast)
Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Gallagherville have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Mortonville. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<2>
We've also created an expanded list of communities that existed in the 1890's and were located in the area around Thorndale. See our List of 1890's Communities around Thorndale.
To share their results, the partnership has created the Chronicling America website. The goal of this partnership is to assemble a database about the current and historic newspapers of the United States. This includes a growing collection of scanned images from selected papers. All of it available to the public on their website.
Using information that we've taken from the Chronicling America website, we've identified 53 newspapers that have been published in the area around Thorndale.
Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Thorndale, there are papers which were published within 9 miles [14.5 km]<4>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Thorndale.
Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...
When we do our genealogical research, we start with the websites from Cyndi's List, FamilySearch and Genealogy Trails. These professional and volunteer websites offer the information directly or else point to where you can find it. Their information is open to everyone.
To help you get started, the following links will take you to the pages that are relevant to Thorndale:
While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<2>
An 'estimated' location is one where we have been given GPS coordinates, but are unable to verify the accuracy of those coordinates. That said, we have some confidence that we have placed the marker near the actual location. A typical reason for being unable to verify a location is that it might be on private property or maybe historic and gone without an obvious trace.
<3>
The location has been supplied by the Geographic Names Information System - which is maintained by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). While these values should be definitive, we found that accuracy can vary and you should double-check the location if accuracy is required.
<4>
Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'straight-line' (or point-to-point) distance. A straight line distance ignores obstructions like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line drawn from Point A (ie- Thorndale) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Thorndale. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 39.9929, Longitude: -75.7452 In this case, the coordinates for Thorndale have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<5>
The Find-a-Grave website is an excellent research tool with information about a cemetery's location and interments. They also offer a forum for their members which can provide additional help. More information about Find-a-Grave can be found on their website: findagrave.com.
<6>
We use the term 'Historic' broadly and it generally means that the community no longer exists. However, it can also mean that the community might still exist, but was significantly larger or had a more 'official' existence in the past than it does now. Unfortunately our sources of data have proven to be unreliable. If you can provide us with more specific information about Thorndale, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.